Engaging with Social Technologies

This week the SpeakerBox team huddled up in our lounge and sat in on a webinar given by Charlene Li, author of Groundswell and the forthcoming Open Leadership. She started the session by stating that social media is no longer the “bright shiny object” and that companies need to get serious about how to use the technology to create relationships. As she said, Social Media is not about technology, it’s about relationships.

In defining strategy, organizations should plan against the following tenants --  Learn, Dialog, Support, and Innovate.

In learning mode, companies monitor what is being said about them online and use that information to make change. Evaluating what information is credible or worth listening to is always a challenge. She suggested that once you do a google search on blog mentions, then look up those posts on del.icio.us to see how many people have bookmarked it, how they’ve tagged it, and what they are saying about it. This gives a sense of how many people are paying attention to the blogger which informs how seriously you should take it. The tagging shows how people categorize the information being written about which can inform your search marketing.

In a dialog, she presented the engagement pyramid which from bottom to top includes watching, sharing, commenting, producing, curating. She said that most organizations want to focus their efforts directly on creating the curators --people who organize and disseminate your information for you. Her advice was to start at the bottom, doing those elements well will naturally build an influential group of curators.

Many companies are using social media, specifically Twitter, as a new vein of customer support. Li advised that you do not need to change your support model to use social media. The Wells Fargo Customer Support Twitter handle states up front that they keep bankers hours and will respond within those defined times.

Organizations that are truly reaping the benefits of social media are those that are able to use it for Innovation. Procter and Gamble solicits comments on products as seemingly mundane as soap and receives incredibly thoughtful and innovative ideas on how to improve the product.

Stay tuned for another post on her recommendations for getting started and making the most out of a social media strategy.

Thank you to the Technology Marketing Alliance for hosting the event!

-Piper Conrad